Petals for the Metal

For decades, guests at Montecito’s family-owned Miramar Hotel were duly cautioned: Please excuse the occasional elephantine rumble of Amtrak plowing through the resort. So when, at a recent community meeting, the Miramar’s new owner, Ian Schrager Hotels--which transformed Manhattan’s Paramount and L.A.’s Mondrian into prime destinations for the traveling sophisticate--audaciously proposed “celebrating” the arrival of the iron octopus, delighted Montecitans recalled a time early in the century when young maidens strewing flower petals and sunny smiles greeted the train during regular stops at the beachside resort. While it is not yet negotiating with local flower growers, a Miramar spokesman said that the hotel is talking with the rails--and that it would like to make the Miramar a dependable stop along the Coast Starlight route.